I had never really analyzed any work of literature before this class. I read books and stories for fun but never to analyze them. I now understand that in any piece of literature there is always a background or hidden agenda that the author wants the reader to get from the reading. In this paper I am going to analyze Nathaniel’s Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” to find the meaning. In “Young Goodman Brown” the protagonist experiences redemption, and through this redemption comes to an uncertain truth about himself and his life.

This uncertain truth lies within his “faith” in himself, his community, and his wife.
Young Goodman Brown is initially characterized in the story as a good Puritan who is devoted to his wife, the community, and the Christian way of life. His wife, Faith, symbolizes his faith in himself, the community, and “Faith” herself. Goodman Brown is struggling with temptation, the devil, and the ways of the Christian faith. He doesn’t feel that he can face this struggle. He has a low level of confidence in himself, as did the author, Hawthorne himself.

Hawthorne wrote this story during a time when he himself was growing up doubting the Puritan faith. This story takes place at least a generation after the Salem Witch Trials. Both Brown and Hawthorne exhibit doubt in themselves as well as their
ancestors. Goodman Brown is also struggling with his past. He must take a journey into the forest, which represents temptation and evil, but can also represent good. Salem can be described as a good place as well as an evil place.

Several events take place during Brown’s journey. On his way into the forest, Brown meets his “fellow traveler”, who is easily recognized as the devil. The devil tries to get Brown to crossover from the Christian way of life to sin by offering his serpentine staff. He makes several advances, but Brown continually refuses. The devil tells Brown that his family has had dealings with him in the past (269). This makes Brown even more aware of his faith.

He wants to remain a good man no matter what his ancestors were accused of, which was witchcraft and deviltry. Going on about his trip, Brown passes many of his mentors including Goody Cloyse and Deacon Gookin. He also passes his wife, “Faith”. When he realizes that they have all given in to the temptations of the devil, especially “Faith”, the Christian beliefs he is trying so hard to hold on to are shaken from him. He screams out, “My Faith is gone! There is no good on earth” (272).
Finally, at the end of his journey, Goodman Brown witnesses the community as a whole participating in satanic acts.

When he sees this, it destroys any and all faith he has in the community and himself. He is happy with
the community and his wife before his journey, but now he is convinced that they are all sinners. He suspects everyone that he held so close of sin.
In essence Young Goodman Brown becomes distrusting and sad. He thinks he is better than everyone else in the community is. He becomes confident that he is the only good person in the community.

He is not like his ancestors after all, so he thinks. He becomes “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man (276). Young Goodman Brown has misunderstood the meaning of “Faith” in its simplicity, expecting to live life free of doubt. He is not a good man as his name suggests. He is like his ancestors, casting doubt upon his peers, isolating himself as if he can not relate to any of his fellow townspeople. Young Goodman Brown, in his initiation into the Christian ways of life, comes to the uncertain truth that there is evil in everyone.

Upon coming to this truth, he is forever changed. He is not a “good” man, but in fact a man. A man with doubts, a man who is unsure of himself, and a man who is unsure of life, as was Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthorne was an unhappy person his entire life and he was .

A "Goodman" Is Hard To Find I had never really analyzed any work of literature before this class. I read books and stories for fun but never to analyze them. I now understand that in any piece of literature there is always a background or hidden agenda that the author wants the reader to get from the reading. In this paper I am going to analyze Nathaniel's Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" to find the meaning. In "Young Goodman Brown" the protagonist experiences redemption, and through this redemption comes to an uncertain truth about himself and his life. This uncertain truth...

?young goodman brown Young Goodman Brown ““Young Goodman Brown”” by NathanielHawthorne contains much symbolism. The symbols take many formsfrom the setting to the characters. The symbols can be viewed asjust part of the story line, but apon further thought theyrepresent many different things. Faith, Brown’’s wife, is asymbol herself. When he says, ““My love and my Faith,”” he isusing his wife as a symbol and is really referring to his loveand faith in God. He goes on to say ““this one night I must tarryaway from thee.”” He means that he must part from his faith inGod to carry on...

“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne contains much symbolism. The symbols take many forms from the setting to the characters. The symbols can be viewed as just part of the story line, but apon further thought they represent many different things. Faith, Brown’s wife, is a symbol herself. When he says, “My love and my Faith,” he is using his wife as a symbol and is really referring to his love and faith in God. He goes on to say “this one night I must tarry away from thee. He means that he must part from his faith in God...

Nathaniel Hawthorne comes from an interesting background. He was born in Salem and later returned to live there. He was a descendant of William Hathorne, a puritan judge who persecuted Quakers, and John Hathorne, a puritan magistrate who participated in the Salem witch trials. Hawthorne’s kinship to these two notables of puritan history makes the story “Young Goodman Brown,” all the more interesting. Hawthorne alludes to John Hathorne when he writes about Goodman Brown’s “fellow traveler” commenting on Brown’s grandfather, who “lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem.”“Young Goodman Brown” is about one man’s journey through...

Setting plays a major role in Goodman Brown's journey to losing his faith. It gives a strong foundation to cause him to doubt what he has always believed in. Once he leaves his wife at the beginning of the story, he goes into a dark and scary forest at night. No normal human being would go into such a place alone at night if there was no reason to. The forest contains plants and animals, but it is not full of life. It is a dull and dead place to lose oneself and sever contact with the outside world. Only...

Young Goodman Brown", by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story that is thick with allegory. "Young Goodman Brown" is a moral story which is told through the perversion of a religious leader. In "Young Goodman Brown", Goodman Brown is a Puritan minister who lets his excessive pride in himself interfere with his relations with the community after he meets with the devil, and causes him to live the life of an exile in his own community."Young Goodman Brown" begins when Faith, Brown's wife, asks him not to go on an "errand". Goodman Brown says to his "love and (my) Faith" that...

In the book Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Goodman Brown wife's name is important to the story because Goodman Brown loses his faith but his wife Faith keeps her faith. The story takes place in a puritan town in Salem back when there believed to be witches. Goodman Browns grandfather and relatives took part in killing and beating the witches in town. The story starts out on a cold night on a special day of the year. That night Goodman Brown took a trip into the forest and told his wife Faith that he had to do business. Faith...

ng Goodman Brown Young Goodman Brown essaysYoung Goodman Brown: Ambiguities The Young Goodman Brown In this story, we as readers are presented with a seemingly easy narrative to interpret. Closer reading, however, reveals two critical ambiguities that may be interpreted at least two different ways. First, why does young goodman Brown go into the forest, and second, is the trip into the forest reality or an illusion? There are two ways to interpret why goodman Brown went into the forest. First, we can assume he went into the forest as a sort of initiation or kind of religious rite of...

In the story Young Goodman Brown a Puritan man confronts and tries to deal with the fact all of the people he thought were god-faring people infact worshiped satin. His Puritanical background was such that he was unable to deal with the possibility of this and he lost his faith and lived an unhappy life. The author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, wrote several stories set during this Puritanical time; showing the religion and people of this time to be intolerable and unforgiving. In this short story Hawthorne shows his dislike of Puritanism through Goodman Brown’s experience with the Devil.Hawthorne begins to show...

Young Goodman Brown is a moral story that is told through the perversion of a religious leader. In Young Goodman Brown, Goodman Brown is a Puritan minister who lets his excessive pride in himself interfere with his relations with the community after he meets with the devil, and causes him to live the life of an exile in his own community.Young Goodman Brown begins when Faith, Brown's wife, asks him not to go on an errand. Goodman Brown says to his love and (my) Faith that this one night I must tarry away from thee. When he says his love...

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I had never really analyzed any work of literature before this class. I read books and stories for fun but never to analyze them. I now understand that in any piece of literature there is always a background or hidden agenda that the author wants the reader to get from the reading. In this paper I am going to analyze Nathaniel's Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" to find the meaning. In "Young Goodman Brown" the protagonist experiences redemption, and through this redemption comes to an uncertain